Year in Rock 2007 is finished! What the final tracklist holds is something you'll find out when you're holding your copy; in the meantime, I've broken down my favourite records of the year into four bite sized portions that I'll be posting over the coming days. Enjoy... or don't. To paraphrase Radiohead, it's up to you.
20. Smashing Pumpkins: Zeitgeist
Although I’m not nearly as high on this album now as I was when I first heard it, Zeitgeist makes the cut based on the shock factor alone. By which I mean, I was shocked by how hard Billy Corgan rocks on this album. Keep in mind that, when I think of the Pumpkins, I can’t seem to shake the steamy, stinky shit pile that is Adore out of my head, what with all its non-rocking colossal suckage. On Zeitgeist, Corgan cranks this bitch to 11 and shreds pretty much nonstop for the album’s duration, which is a feat unheard of since Gish. And, while the majority of the tracks won’t stand the test of time by any stretch, the pure rock power of “Tarantula”, the driving energy of “That’s the Way (My Love Is)” and the epic sonic attack of “United States” make Zeitgeist infinitely better than Adore. Is the album top 20 material? Probably not. But, I can’t ignore the fact that this is an album I was boycotting until I listened to it. If Billy was able to pull the wool over my eyes in such convincing fashion, who am I to deny him a spot on the list? Well played, Corgan. Well played, sir.
19. Tegan and Sara: The Con
If, at the beginning of the year, you compiled a list of all the artists releasing albums in 2007, then showed it to me, I can virtually guarantee that I would not have chosen Tegan and Sara as a likely Top 20 suspect. After all, I’m not exactly well known for my love of cutesy twin Canadian lesbians who craft aching hearted indie pop. But then, I heard “The Con”, a simple, affectionate, surprisingly feisty track, and I was intrigued. So I picked up The Con on a whim. Over the course of its fourteen tracks, there’s equal parts strange folk, timid punk, bleeding hearts, longing lyrics, and raw talent. Then, there’s the absolutely anthemic “Nineteen”, which sounds like a Bloc Party track. In fact, it’s ten times better than just about anything on this year’s Bloc Party album, which I can assure you didn’t make the list. Ignore the blatant pop leanings of “Back in Your Head”, and The Con is a challenging, engaging, and thoroughly enthralling, record.
18. Spoon:
Spoon is (not) famous for flying under the radar. They still aren’t a household name despite over ten years and six albums of simple, effective, and awesome pop/rock. They’ve had their songs featured in commercials, the critics have been in their pocket since 2002’s stunning Kill the Moonlight, and they continue to evolve as a band. That they’re doing it so quietly is a minor miracle, considering how good their last four albums have been. On 2005’s Gimme Fiction, it seemed that Spoon might finally explode into the mainstream, with the minimalist masterpiece “I Turn My Camera On” or the bouncy Who throwback “Sister Jack”. However, it didn’t happen. Of course, that didn’t stop Britt Daniel & co. from changing up their sonic palette and getting a little weirder on
17. Joel Plaskett Emergenc y: Ashtray Rock
After gaining steady momentum on his group’s previous records, Joel Plaskett took it down a few notches with the horribly subdued solo effort La De Da in 2005. So when it came time to make another record with the band, Plaskett did what anyone in his situation would do: create a concept record about a love triangle that breaks up a teenage band, set in God-knows-when around a series of underage drinking parties. Musically, Ashtray Rock is all over the place, from the fifties doo-wop cutesiness of “Penny For Your Thoughts” to the reggae new wave vibe of “Fashionable People” to the seventies FM rock of “Drunk Teenagers”. Throw in some modern stylings and a healthy dose of throwback Plaskett (many of the album’s tracks had been written previously, some as long as 10-13 years ago), and Ashtray Rock is a wildly diverse, endlessly catchy record that isn’t so much timeless as it is all time encompassing.
16. Kings of
When Kings of Leon’s second record (the underappreciated Aha Shake Heartbreak) commercially and critically failed to deliver on the lofty promises of their first (the overwhelming Youth and Young Manhood), they could have been forgiven for back peddling into a contrived attempt at recreating said first album. Whether or not success would have found them in that situation is irrelevant, as they elected to deliver a record straight out of left field in Because of the Times. The word “experimentation” usually translates to “difficult”. In Kings of Leon’s case, it translates to “writing a batch of amazing songs that sound worlds apart from the first two records and not giving two shits what people think or say about it”. If you miss the dirty southern garage noise of “Molly’s Chamber” and “Four Kicks”, that’s cool. I’ll take the spacey groove of “Knocked Up” and the off the rails metallic crunch of “Charmer” as a consolation prize any day. Those two songs alone make Because of the Times worth the price of admission, and we haven’t even gotten to the really wild experiments yet. If the reverb-soaked, anthemic, howling “On Call” or the freak funk workout of “My Party” are so different from Kings of Leon’s previous output (and they are), then different is most definitely good.
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